From Unity (Special Seagate edition), 3 November 2007

The bare face of capitalism

Seagate runs to where labour costs little

When the Seagate bosses informed the workers last Monday about what many had been expecting—the closure of the Limavady factory by mid-2008—they set yet another example of the brutal and inhumane practice of this system.
     The axing of the last sizable factory in Limavady is far more than just a disaster for the more than 900 workers and their families. Seagate follows in the footsteps of destruction left by the likes of Courtauld’s (textiles), Desmond’s (clothes manufacturers), Fruit of the Loom, Herdman’s and others who have completely ruined the manufacturing base in the North-West.
     The driving force behind the mass destruction of jobs is always the same: they run to the last corner of the globe for any extra pound or dollar of profit they can make.
     Communists do not join the chorus of mourners who lament the “terrible blow” and forget it soon afterwards, nor are we for yet another meeting with the factory management. We call a spade a spade and expose the Seagate destruction and the lies workers have been told.
     The factory is neither unproductive nor uncompetitive, as the plant manager, Dr William Kane, and his ilk are trying to tell us.
     The “competition” is home-made. Seagate set up the new factory in Malaysia because they can get people there to work for ridiculously low wages. All the other “competitors” in the hardware market are doing the same thing. No doubt the workers in Malaysia will be the next victims, as soon as an even cheaper work-force has been found somewhere else.
     This is not a blow like a hurricane or some other sort of natural disaster that sweeps away the workers’ jobs in Limavady. It is well-planned destruction, one aim only behind it: more profit into the Seagate bosses’ pockets.
     Let’s have no illusions about new opportunities for the sacked men and women, “job boosts” through EU or government money. Aren’t we just experiencing the results of over £12 million of government gifts?
     We say: The tramping over the workers by the bosses can only be ground to a final halt when the people own what the people produce and when the workers make the decisions.
     Saying this doesn’t mean sitting and waiting for socialism. We should now
     • strengthen the unions and support their struggle against the destruction of jobs
     • not wait until whimpering politicians strike the next “deal,” which will undoubtedly lead to more destruction
     • look more closely at what the Communists have to say.
     Support our fight for a better system!

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